International Conferenca México y España | Cinco siglos de arquitectura para una historia en común (International Conference Mexico and Spain | Five Centuries of Architecture for a Common History)
The histories of Mexico and Spain have been intertwined since 1519. Their complex history since the early 19th century has led the historiography of architecture in both countries to follow largely separate paths. However, now more than ever, the historical ties between Mexico and Spain require new and more articulated interpretations, thus contributing, together, to their great shared challenges.
From their relationships within the Hispanic world in the modern age to their current role in the Ibero-American cultural space within the global world, Mexico and Spain have witnessed countless mutual transfers of architectural culture that reveal connected and shared cultural coordinates, but also significant differences, specificities, and individual particularities.
The objective of the Mexico and Spain Forum/Congress: Five Centuries of Architecture for a Common History is to research aspects that will enrich the history of architecture between Mexico and Spain for a common history. The event unites the scientific meetings of the Association of Historians of Architecture and Urbanism, based in Spain, and the Forum on the History and Criticism of Modern Architecture, based in Mexico, organized jointly for the first time.
The intellectual exchange, institutional collaboration, and sharing of knowledge among Spanish, Mexican, and other researchers on the Mexico-Spain issue seek to construct new and more articulated questions based on old and new interpretative problems raised in the papers, favored by the ample space dedicated to debate in the sessions, which is a hallmark of the scientific meetings of both institutions.
Far from being directed solely at specialists already recognized in their comparative studies between Mexico and Spain, the objective of the Congress/Forum is to connect historiographies and encourage relational studies between both cultural realities on each topic, and also by researchers currently specialized in one or another architectural culture, theme, or historical period, thus inviting individual and national researchers to broaden their horizons toward a common history.
The breadth of intellectual horizons is fostered through 10 thematic sessions that promote a relational approach and bidirectional interpretations between Spain and Mexico, transcending national and center-periphery perspectives. They connect the historiography of both countries, favoring comparative and intersecting histories based on historiographical problems, themes, personalities, or specific works considered central to each session, or by including aspects of the other's architectural culture in a theme developed primarily in one of the two settings. The sessions address topics within each historical period that aim to showcase both the shared parameters and the diversity of architectural culture achievements, in turn forming an overall diachronic reading that encompasses five centuries of cultural relations in the field of architecture at all levels.
Ultimately, research on aspects of the history of architecture between Mexico and Spain over five centuries aims to enrich the history of both countries and contribute to a shared history and future as part of the contemporary commitment to the history of architecture.
Thematic sessions and responsible speakers
1. Historiography Carolina B. García-Estévez and Patricio del Real
2. Architecture in New Spain during the 16th century. A legacy of cultural expression between Spain and Mexico. Bianca de Divitiis and Magdalena Vences Vidal
3. Iberian Worlds: Urban Worlds. City and Territory in the 16th and 17th Centuries. Juan Luis Burke and Manuel Sánchez García
4. Between the Enlightenment and Neoclassicism Juan Calatrava and Óscar H. Flores Flores
5. Architecture in the context of international exhibitions: a critical look at the ideas of identity, meaning and modernity Fabricio Lázaro and F. Javier Rodríguez Barberán
6. Silver Age, Mexican Revolution, Spanish Republic and exile Salvador Guerrero and Reina Loredo Cansino
7. Debates on Living: Housing in Mexico and Spain in the 20th Century Selene Laguna Galindo and Manuel Martín Hernández
8. Modern Identities: Connections and Conflicts between the Architectural Cultures of Spain and Mexico (1898-2026) Jorge Francisco Liernur and Joaquín Medina Warmburg
9. Contemporary Heritage. Architecture and City by Mar Loren-Méndez and Olga Orive Bellinger
10. Contemporary City and Territory Carlos García Vázquez and Daniel González Romero